Facing Disaster, Trustmark Launched a Renaissance

Setting tradition aside, the 95-year-old insurance company looked to Apple and American Girl as a guide to its future

BusinessWeek, November 4, 2009 — On a sunny day in June 2006, David McDonough, chief executive of Trustmark Insurance, was roaming Chicago's Navy Pier, talking to strangers. "We needed to understand what made people tick," says McDonough of the exercise, which was part of a two-day workshop designed to get his executive team to look beyond actuarial tables and stimulate thinking about the company's future.

Starbucks Looks to Seattle's Best to Help Turn Things Around†

Michelle Gass to Lead Separate Unit for Brand

Advertising Age, September 14, 2009 — Starbucks is looking beyond its own brand to help transform the company.

CEO Howard Schultz has described Seattle's Best Coffee, which Starbucks acquired in 2003, as a big opportunity for the company as a whole. Now Seattle's Best will have Michelle Gass, one of Mr. Schultz's most-trusted advisers, at the helm. Ms. Gass is a 13-year company veteran and architect of Starbucks' multibillion-dollar Frappuccino franchise.

How Industries Survive Change. If They Do.

New York Times, November 15, 2008 — By some logic, there is no earthly reason why bicycles should still exist.

They are a quaint, 19th-century invention, originally designed to get someone from point A to point B. Today there are much faster, far less labor-intensive modes of transportation. And yet hopeful children still beg for them for Christmas, healthful adults still ride them to work, and daring teenagers still vault them down courthouse steps. The bicycle industry has faced its share of disruptive technologies, and it has repeatedly risen from the ashes.

What the Auto Industry Can Learn From Apple†

IPhone Stampede Offers Lessons in Total Transformation

Advertising Age, July 15, 2008 — Like hundreds of thousands of people across the country, I stood in line last weekend at the Apple Store in Newport Beach, Calif., to buy the new iPhone 3G for my daughter after three unsuccessful attempts at nearby AT&T stores.

Witnessing this exuberant demand for a new product made me wonder if this feat could be repeated in other categories, such as the auto business. What would an automaker have to do to seduce consumers to stand in line to buy a hot new car? Here are some lessons from the iPhone:

An Unlikely Promoter Drives Nokia’s Push in Hollywood

New York Times, June 23, 2008 — Tero Ojanpera is an unlikely media entrepreneur. Mr. Ojanpera, a veteran Nokia executive, is not a fan of “American Idol,” although he says he enjoys it from time to time. And when he tried to watch a recent episode of “Hannah Montana,” one of his sons switched the channel.

But four years ago, Mr. Ojanpera and his colleagues in the research center had an epiphany: that entertainment was crucial to the future of Nokia, the Finnish mobile phone maker.